A 34 year-old man with leukemic lymphoblastic lymphoma (LBL), who could not tolerate chemotherapy due to its side effects, was diagnosed to have an acute febrile disease by a traditional Chinese medical doctor, Lu Gan Fu. Zixuedan, a traditional Chinese remedy for dissipation of pathogenic heat and detoxification that could reduce WBC count including leukemic cells below 1000/microliters without intolerable side effects, was prescribed for treatment. A second case of acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) was a 41 year-old female who also could not tolerate chemotherapy. In her fourth recurrence, she started Chinese medicine including modified zixuedan, which gave her transient improvement followed by aggravation. Intake of previously ineffective cyclophosphamide in combination with Chinese medicine led to a dramatic improvement.

The in vitro proliferation and maturation of bone marrow cells in erythropoietic porphyria of cows was studied using ³H-thymidine labeling and autoradiography. Ratios of basophilic normoblast: polychromatic normoblast:late polychromatic normoblast: and orthochromatic normoblast were 1:3:8:19 for normal marrow and 1:3:12:32 for porphyric marrow. The turnover times for the basophilic normoblast: polychromatic normoblast: late polychromatic normoblast were 10:17:31 h in the normals as compared to 12:16:26 h in the porphyries. The cell cycle times and DNA synthetic times were correspondingly similar

Various culture systems are now available to study erythropoiesis in vitro. These include suspension and cloning culture techniques. Suspension culture techniques are frequently used for studying biochemical changes in erythroid cells, while cloning culture techniques are suited for investigating the nature of erythroid stem cells. Some aspects of human erythropoiesis will be clarified by employing new methods such as the Marbrook diffusion chamber technique.